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Switzerland has the answer to Britain’s migrant conundrum

Denis MacShane

As she starts her walking holiday in Switzerland Theresa May would do well to study how the Swiss have come to terms with allowing EU citizens to live and work in their country. Switzerland has become Europe’s richest nation by giving preferential rights to native-born workers while remaining open to foreign-born ones.

Three years ago the Swiss voted in a referendum to ban immigration from Europe, while remaining linked to the EU as a member of the European Free Trade Association. Brussels responded that barring workers from other EU countries on the grounds of their nationality was not possible inside the single market (at least in the private sector; state enterprises are not covered by freedom of movement rules).